Chapter 4.pdf

Chapter 4
Building Online Presence:
Websites, Mobile Sites, and
Apps
Copyright © 2022, 2019, 2018 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Walmart Website Redesign: Going Upscale
in Its Fight to Compete With Amazon
• Class Discussion
– Why is Walmart considered an underdog in the e-
commerce arena?
– What was Walmart’s objective in redesigning its
website?
– How does Walmart’s website differ from Amazon’s
website?
– How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted Walmart?

Imagine Your Online Presence (1 of 3)
• What’s the idea? The vision includes:
– Mission statement
– Target audience
– Intended market space
– Strategic analysis
– Marketing matrix
– Development timeline
– Preliminary budget

• Where’s the money?
– Business model(s)
– Revenue model(s)
• Who and where is the target audience?
– Demographics, lifestyle, consumption patterns, etc.
• What is the ballpark? Characterize the marketplace
– Size, growth, demographics, structure

• Where’s the content coming from?
• Know yourself-SWOT analysis
• Develop an e-commerce presence map
• Develop a timeline: Milestones
• How much will this cost?
– Simple website: up to $5000
– Small startup: $25,000 to $50,000
– Large corporate website: $100,000+ to millions

Figure 4.1 SWOT Analysis

Figure 4.2 Online Presence Map

Building a Website: A Systematic
Approach
• Most important management challenges:
1. Developing a clear understanding of business objectives
2. Knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve those
objectives
• Main factors to consider
– Management
– Hardware architecture
– Software
– Design
– Telecommunications
– Human resources

Planning: The Systems Development Life
Cycle
• Methodology for understanding business objectives of a
system and designing an appropriate solution
• Five major steps:
– Systems analysis/planning
– Systems design
– Building the system
– Testing
– Implementation

Figure 4.5 Systems Development Life
Cycle

System Analysis/Planning
• Business objectives:
– List of capabilities you want your site to have
• System functionalities:
– List of information system capabilities needed to
achieve business objectives
• Information requirements:
– Information elements that system must produce in
order to achieve business objectives

Table 4.2 System Analysis, Business Objectives,
System Functionalities, and Information Requirements
for a Typical E-commerce Site (1 of 2)
Business Objective System Functionality Information Requirements
Display goods Digital Catalog Dynamic text and graphics catalog
Provide product information Product database Product description, stocking numbers,
inventory levels
Personalize/customize
product
Customer on-site
tracking
Site log for every customer visit; data
mining capability to identify common
customer paths and appropriate responses
Engage customers in
conversations
On-site blog; user
forums
Software with blogging and community
forum functionality
Execute a transaction Shopping cart/payment
system
Secure credit card clearing; multiple
payment options
Accumulate customer
information
Customer database Name, address, phone, and e-mail for all
customers; online customer registration

Table 4.2 System Analysis, Business Objectives,
System Functionalities, and Information Requirements
for a Typical E-commerce Site (2 of 2)
Business Objective System Functionality Information Requirements
Provide after-sale customer
support
Sales database Customer ID, product, date, payment,
shipment date
Coordinate
marketing/advertising
Ad server, e-mail server, e-
mail, campaign manager,
ad banner manager
Site behavior log of prospects and
customers linked to e-mail and banner ad
campaigns
Understand marketing
effectiveness
Site tracking and reporting
system
Number of unique visitors, pages visited,
products purchased, identified by
marketing campaign
Provide production and
supplier links
Inventory management
system
Product and inventory levels, supplier ID
and contact, order quantity data by
product

Systems Design: Hardware and Software
Platforms
• System design specification:
– Description of main components of a system and
their relationship to one another
• Two components of system design:
– Logical design
▪ Data flow diagrams, processing functions,
databases
– Physical design
▪ Specifies actual physical, software components,
models, and so on

Figure 4.6 A Logical and Physical Design
for a Simple Website

Building the System: In-House Versus
Outsourcing
• Outsourcing: Hiring vendors to provide services involved in
building site
• Build own versus outsourcing:
– Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice
of software tools; both risks and possible benefits
• Host own versus outsourcing
– Hosting: Hosting company responsible for ensuring site is
accessible 24/7, for monthly fee
– Co-location: Firm purchases or leases web server (with
control over its operation), but server is located at vendor’s
facility

Figure 4.7 Choices in Building and
Hosting

Insight on Business: Weebly Makes
Creating Websites Easy
• Class Discussion
– What value does Weebly offer to small businesses?
– Are there any drawbacks to using Weebly to create
an e-commerce presence?
– How are service providers like Weebly changing the
nature of e-commerce?

Testing the System
• Testing
– Unit testing
– System testing
– Acceptance testing
– A/B testing (split testing)
– Multivariate testing

Implementation, Maintenance, and
Optimization
• Systems break down unpredictably
• Maintenance is ongoing
• Maintenance costs: Similar to development costs
– A $40K e-commerce site may require $40K annually
to upkeep
• Benchmarking

Alternative Web Development
Methodologies
• Prototyping
• Agile development
• DevOps
• Component-based development
• Web services
– Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
– Microservices

Web Servers
• Web server is a combination of software and hardware
that uses HTTP and other protocols to respond to client
request made over the world wide web.
• Example: Apache HTTP Server

Table 4.4 Basic Functionality Provided by
Web Servers
Functionality Description
Processing of HTTP requests Receive and respond to client requests for HTML
pages
Security services (Secure
Sockets Layer)/Transport Layer
Security
Verify username and password; process certificates
and private/public key information required for credit
card processing and other secure information
File Transfer Protocol Permits transfer of very large files from server to
server
Search engine Indexing of site content; keyword search capability
Data capture Log file of all visits, time, duration, and referral
source
E-mail Ability to send, receive, and store e-mail messages
Site management tools Calculate and display key site statistics, such as
unique visitors, page requests, and origin of
requests; check links on pages

Site Management Tools
• Basic tools included in all web servers
– Verify that links on pages are still valid
– Identify orphan files
• Third-party software for advanced management
– Monitor customer purchases
– Marketing campaign effectiveness
– Keep track of hit counts and other statistics
– Example: Webtrends Analytics 10

Merchant Server Software Packages (1 of 3)
• Integrated environment that includes most of
functionality needed
– Shopping cart
– Merchandise display
– Order management

• Different options for different-sized businesses
– Small and medium-sized businesses: ShopUp,
Shopify; Bigcommerce, Vendio, open-source
solutions
– Mid-range: HCL Commerce; Sitecore Experience
Commerce
– High-end: SAP Hybris Commerce, Oracle ATG
Web Commerce, Magento
• Many now also available as cloud-based SaaS
solutions.

• Key factors in selecting a package
– Functionality
– Support for different business models, including m-
commerce
– Business process modeling tools
– Visual site management and reporting
– Performance and scalability
– Connectivity to existing business systems
– Compliance with standards
– Global and multicultural capability
– Local sales tax and shipping rules

Table 4.11 The Eight Most Important Factors
in Successful E-commerce Site Design
Factor Description
Functionality Pages that work, load quickly, and point the customer
toward your product offerings
Informational Links that customers can easily find to discover more
about you and your products
Ease of use Simple foolproof navigation
Redundant navigation Alternative navigation to the same content
Ease of purchase One or two clicks to purchase
Multi-browser functionality Site works with the most popular browsers
Simple graphics Avoids distracting, obnoxious graphics and sounds that
the user cannot control
Legible text Avoids backgrounds that distort text or make it illegible

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